Les Fous du stade (1972) - film review

As a nearby village makes ready to  welcome the torch carrier of the International Games, four friends – Jean-Guy, Phil, Gérard and Jean – are enjoying a stress-free holiday in Provence.  When his son becomes indisposed, the town’s grocer, Jules, appeals to the four friends to help him to complete the preparations for the welcoming committee.   The grocer’s daughter, Délice, catches the eye, and the heart, of Gérard, but she only appears to be interested in the well-built athlete who brings the torch to the town.  The only way for Gérard to win Délice is for him to prove his sporting prowess, which he does by entering the International Games with his three friends.  Competitive sport will never be the same again...

The group of talented comedy musicians known as Les Charlots were at the height of their popularity in France when they returned to cinema screens in their third – and arguably best – of their films, Les Fous du stade.   Following the success of La Grande Java and Les Bidasses en folie, the amiable group had arrived at a winning formula of surreal visual gags and madcap storylines that seemed to appeal to everyone except the critics.  By this time, alas, one member of the original team - Luis Rego – had left to follow a solo career, but the four who remained put so much into this film that you hardly notice his absence.

With its non-stop marathon of well-conceived and well-executed visual gags, Les Fous du stade is a terrific feel-good film that will appeal as much to adults as it does to children.  It matters not one iota that the plot is something a ten-year old would be ashamed to admit having dreamed up.  It matters even less that the film occasionally gets caught up in its own anarchic silliness and loses all sense of reality.   What matters is that it manages to make you laugh – and keep you laughing for a good ninety minutes.  There are not many full-length films that can achieve that.  And the music is pretty good too.

© James Travers 2008

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After watching this movie around 1977/8, my belly was hurting really bad from too much laughing.  I never saw it again, and forgot who made it. It’s 2011, and I’m very happy to have finally found the movie’s name again.  Hoping that I can find a DVD somewhere... be ready belly for another round, hopefully soon!
Peter Montgomery  

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